White Lake Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

After seeing the lake conditions the goal was just to make it through the swim. Started slow to the first buoy. At that point I felt ok. Although it was rough I felt like I was making progress. To my surprise I actually passed a couple people in my wave. About halfway to the next turn I started to catch some swimmers in the wave ahead. Felt very encouraged about this. Breathing was good. Tried to stay smooth and in my rhythm. Sighting was good. Couple of times had to correct to the left because of the waves. Got to the final turn home and this is where it got pretty difficult. Goggles fogged up so fixed that. Had to use alot of energy just to swim to the dock. This swim was much better than I thought it would be.

Maybe warmup a little more but I am so happy with the time its hard to say if that would of helped or hurt.

Had to get my legs under me after climbing the ladder onto the dock. Walked for about six or eight feet. Started to run to the transition area and unzip the wetsuit at the same time. Could not get the darn thing unzipped. Finally got it unzipped just before entering the transition area. As expected, had a hard time getting out of my wetsuit. Kept getting caught on my heels. Got the suit off and worked to get my socks on my wet feet. That went as you might expect. Not good!!! After getting the socks on the rest was easy.

Would just run to the transition area and not mess with the wetsuit zipper till I got closer. Need to practice the bike and run without socks. With some practice T1 can get better.

Very strong winds on the bike course although the trees did help some. Head wind on the first half but the cross wind on the middle portion was just as hard. Started out hard and settled in. Check heart rate to make sure I was in the right zone. First lap I got passed by several elites on their second lap. One guy passed me in my age group so I decided to try and keep him in sight. This helped my pacing. Wanted to stay above 20 mph as much as possible. First lap was somewhat uneventful except for nearly running off the road taking a drink from my water bottle. Got a two minute "position penalty". May have happened when I moved to the left to keep from running off the road while drinking. Oh well, no sense in crying over spilled milk. Beginning of the second lap got crowded. Some beginning their first lap, while others were working on the second. Pushed harder on the second lap. Other than the traffic the second lap was uneventful. Tried to spin alot at the end of the second lap to get some blood flow to the legs. Even with this was a minute and half faster on the second lap. Overall a great ride.

Need to get an aero bottle for hydration. Other than that this ride was almost perfect.

T2 was much better than T1. My rack was close to the bike start and finish so I didn't have to run far with the cycling shoes on. Had a long ways to go for the run start. Shoes off, running shoes on, helmet off, grab the run number and was off.

Practice taking feet out of shoes before dismount, along with the no sock thing.

Felt good getting off the bike. Got the standard calf cramping for the first mile of the run. Head wind for the first half of the run. Somebody was on my right shoulder as we came out of transition. They stayed there for about the first half mile then fell back. Terrible to say but I was feeling pretty good at dropping somebody and cramping at the same time so I wasn't too slack. This run was hard out to the turn around. At the turn around I started feeling much better. Calves stopped cramping and picked up the tail wind. Went as hard as possible to the finish. How do people run barefooted? High fived the wife and kids on the way in.

Need more brick training. Simple as that.

Hugs from the wife and kids. Got something to drink and watched other finishers. Saw Robin, Keith, Ed, Terri and several others I recognized.


Very simply, the swim and bike were much better than I thought I would do but I have some run work to do. Need more bricks. Have to get rid of the calf cramps coming off the bike. Other than that just need training and race time.


This was a really fun race to do. I look forward to doing the half next year.